300 police cars misfuelled in 2017

The frustration of putting the wrong fuel in your motor is a feeling that many motorists share at some point in their driving lifetime, and police officers are not off the hook…

According to a Freedom of Information request by the Press Association, the boys and girls in blue mistakenly filled patrol cars with the wrong type of fuel 299 times in 2017.

The average cost of fixing the issue is £178 a time, and the errors have cost the tax payer £53,337 to rectify.

Of the 45 British police forces, 40 responded to the FOI request, with 33 admitting to outlaying for repairs as a consequence of misfuelling.

The worst offending force for the number of incidents is West Midlands Police, recording 66 separate instances involving the wrong fuel type. However, the damage has so far been minimal, and the total cost is only £3,737, or £56.62 per event.

Comparatively, London’s Met Police have had 49 incidents, but have spent £17,589.57 in total on repairs; the equivalent of £358.97 for each occasion.